Quick 18: Weir kicks off year, advice for Allenby and more

text size

Cannon/Getty Images

Davis Love III learned from the best in the game. Now he's offering advice to young TOUR players.

Editor's note: PGATOUR.COM's Melanie Hauser will be shaking out the mental lint and pulling together the "Quick 18" on Mondays this year.

1. On the tee for the first time in 2010 this week? Mike Weir. The former Masters champ just happens to also be a former Bob Hope Classic champ, so it's a perfect place for the soon-to-be-40 Canadian to jump-start his year. "I've kind of been on a mission, let's say that," Weir said. "I do what I always do, and that's training very hard in order to keep up with some of these young guys and try to outwork some of them to start the season." As for his record? In 2003, he won the Hope, then won at Riviera (then the Nissan Open, now Northern Trust Open) and followed up with a Green Jacket at the Masters.

Related

Monday Backspin
Scrabble wars on TOUR
Bob Hope celebs

2. From the Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine: Ran across this from legendary sports writer Grantland Rice on colorful playboy/legend Walter Hagen. "It remained for Hagen to supply the human interest, to put the throbbing kick into the game. Color, no matter how it's spelled out, means gold for the newspapers. Hagen had more color than a lawn full of peacocks."

3. Best inside look via Twitter? This week it came from Paul Casey, who tweeted a picture of his "suite" on Etihad Airways flight from London to Abu Dhabi. Sweet, suite.

4. Davis Love III makes the Quick 18, not for his hole-out for eagle or T5 at the Sony Open in Hawaii, but for stepping into some big shoes. Love, who'll turn 46 the week after the Masters, watched and learned from the likes of Ben Crenshaw, Tom Kite, Lanny Wadkins, Raymond Floyd and Arnold Palmer. Now Love is doing the teaching. " (Crenshaw, etc.) showed me how to act and how to give back to the game, so I'm just following in their footsteps,'' Love said. "Hopefully, I help some of these young guys and beat a few of them."

5. No need to belabor Robert Allenby's putting woes (again). Two words: Team Stockton. Dave and his boys Dave Jr., and Ronnie have a busy schedule, but there's always room for one more. Just a thought.

6. Justin Leonard was on the range at Sony Saturday morning having missed the cut by a shot. "My punishment is missing the Cowboys game." More like punishment was watching it.

7. How about Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus? After blowing away the field at the Wendy's Senior Skins Game, you wonder what the future will bring for Watson. With the right winds at St. Andrews, he could be in the mix and make 60 the new 40. Jack? He's off to Christmas Island for a little fly-fishing to celebrate his 70th Thursday. Check out PGATOUR.COM later this week for a special birthday commemoration.

8. It's a different world this week at the Bob Hope Classic where the tournament goes five days instead of four and all the stars come out. The usual celeb suspects include Emmitt Smith, Alice Cooper, Chris O'Donnell, Kyle McLachlan and Anthony Anderson. Not so usual? Actors Stephanie Szostak (small part in The Devil Wears Prada) and Joel Gretsch (V) and Tampa Bay's Evan Longoria.

9. Everyone's been talking about Rocco Mediate's cameo on Thursday night's CSI (more in my Tuesday column), but Stewart Cink tweeted that he'd rather do an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Lots of possibilities as you scan the World Rankings -- remember Phil Mickelson did Entourage last year -- but there's one no-brainer. How about Phil's caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay getting a shot on Bones?

10. Charl Schwartzel is 2-for-2 in 2010 and just moved to 35th in the world. Now it's on to Abu Dhabi and a more-than serious test. Think Geoff Ogilvy, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy, Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia, to name a few. The big boys are coming out to play.

11. It's way too early to make serious major predictions, but we're telling you right now if Westwood isn't on your short list, he should be. Back-to-back ties for third at last year's British Open and PGA Championship and a third at the 2008 U.S. Open. The Ryder Cup star has quietly moved to fourth in the world.

12. The John Daly outfit that got our attention last week? The shagadelic green pants and matching neon green shirt. The good news? We won't see it this week. JD and his collection will be back at the San Diego Open.

13. Which is tougher to select, a guitar or golf clubs? Singer/songwriter/celeb golfer Vince Gill says it's a push. "A golf club has to have the right loft and lie and stiffness of shaft, and all of those things have got to feel great in your hands, too. They have to work in a mathematical way. You get a shaft that's too limber or too light, it won't perform. It has to match your swing speed and how hard you hit it. It's the same with a guitar."

14. In case you missed it, Darren Clarke's runner-up finish at the South African Open moved him back into the top 100 in the Official World Golf Ranking. The European Ryder Cup stalwart is 95th and about to shoot up the RC points list.

15. Royal and Ancient CEO Peter Dawson explained the reasoning on lengthening St. Andrews' Road Hole -- the 17th -- to Scotland on Sunday: "The bottom line is that very few people are going through the green on to the road. So what we are trying to do is get players hitting driver and/or much longer second shots. If we do either or both, the road will be much more in play than it has been in the recent past." Good or bad? You decide.

16. Ryo Ishikawa has been named Golf Ambassador of Thailand. The Bashful Prince doesn't need any tips on how to wow a crowd. His first trip to the U.S. will be for the Northern Trust Open where he made his PGA TOUR debut in 2009.

17. Believe it or not, courses are already lining up to host the 2018 Ryder Cup. What's interesting about it? Four of the courses aren't in play. And one doesn't even have land set aside. According to Golfweek, the courses-in-progress include The Dutch in Holland (Colin Montgomerie design) and Golden Eagle Resort course in Portugal (Bernhard Langer design) . Two other thoughts? The Stadium Course at Bro Hof Slot in Sweden (Robert Trent Jones Jr.) and the Albatross Course at France's Le Golf National Paris.

18. Golf is still a game to Californian Forrest Cushman, who, at 90, has shot his age more than 1,000 times. According to the Oakland Tribune, Cushman just missed shooting his age on his last birthday. His hip blew out on his approach into 18, he hit into a bunker and wound up shooting 91. It still makes you smile.

Melanie Hauser is a columnist for PGATOUR.COM. Her views do not necessarily represent the views of the PGA TOUR.